Italy and the digital highway of Google and Sparkle: from Genoa to the rest of the world

“Those who work in the submarine cable industry know how important collaboration and cooperation are for the success of the company, for their laying, maintenance and use”: Jayne Stowell answered us like thiswhen we asked her if the current difficult international situation could in any way hinder her work around the world.

Stowell works for Google, where he serves as strategic negotiator for the construction of infrastructures, and is one of the people involved in the BlueMed project, the submarine data cable that will connect Italy with France, Greece, Israel and other countries bordering the Mediterranean. The cable, almost 5,000 kilometers longis created by a consortium of companies headed by Tim Sparklewhose first intention was to bring customers a faster, more secure and more stable connection.

Genoa is confirmed as a digital port

Stowell has confirmed to us that BlueMed is somewhat of a competitor and also complementary to 2Africa, the other submarine cable that passes through the so-called digital port of Genoa to connect Europe to the rest of the world: “It is important that there are many, that many avenues for data are available – he told us with appreciable honesty – It is better for people, because if something happens, like in Japan after the terrible Fukushima tsunami in 2011, which destroyed all but one cable, you still have the ability to stay connected.”

BlueMed, which starts from Marseilles, arrives in Genoa (in the former Telecom building in Lagacciomap below) and then from the Ligurian capital it descends towards Sardinia, Sicily and from there to Greece and Israel, will be completed in stages: “The first segment, the Italian one, by mid-2023 – Stowell explained – The rest by the first quarter of 2024”. It will be finished, but it won’t really be finished: “Some future branches towards Pomezia are already planned, to serve the Rome area, towards Corsica and subsequently also towards Algeria, Libya and Turkey”.

At the moment, the shortest stretch is the one between Marseille and Genoa, while the longest will be between Liguria and Tel Aviv; simplifying (a lot) inside the cable there are 20 different optical fibers and every 80-90 kilometers there are those that can be considered like the range extenders we use to broadcast the home wifi signalwhich here have the task of amplifying and maintaining the data transfer rate constant.

google maps: docking of the BlueMed cable in Genoa

“How to build a super highway”

The cable is part of the larger project Blue Submarine Cable Systemcreated in partnership with Google and other operators, which will have further extensions in the African and Asian continents: it is a work that costs “hundreds of millions of dollars” and it should also have important economic repercussions on Italy.

Which? “It’s like building a superhighway, which until it’s there you don’t realize you would need – Stowell told us again – It will be able to attract more Workmake life easier companiesfacilitate access to cloud and generally speed up the connectionseven for individuals”.

Also for this reason, Google has already announced its intention to invest 900 million dollars in Italy, precisely to enhance its cloud infrastructures (initially in Milan and Turin), together with Tim and Intesa set up the Opening Future programme to support 20,000 students, 700 startups and 10,000 small and medium-sized enterprises over the next 7 years and also, with the Italia in Digitale project, has enabled the overall digitization of more than one million people and SMEs. Which are all things that are done better, if there is an infrastructure capable of conveying the necessary amount of data.

More: Stowell reminded us that “a recent independent study by the University of Turin has shown that the new cloud regions of Milan and Turin will generate by 2025 a turnover of 3.3 billion euros in Lombardy and Piedmont”. And then cascading over the rest of Italy. It’s the power of submarine cables. And collaboration, of course.